Deadline: April 30th, 5pm.

Submission Guidelines
Session proposals should be submitted through the online form.

Important Dates
All session proposals must be submitted by 5pm, April 30th for consideration. Approved sessions will be decided and notified in June. We encourage those submitting proposals to not wait for a decision to register for the conference. 

Session Formats
Types of formats include presentations, panels, interactive work sessions, and roundtable discussions. Sessions can be 45, 60, or 75 minutes; however, longer sessions should have more than one presenter or be a non-presentation format. 

Content Emphasis
Sessions should generally be focused on applied solutions to the issues facing rural, county, small town, and tribal planners. While all relevant planning topics are encouraged, the following topics are of particular emphasis for the conference committee: 

• Housing affordability

• Water planning & management

• Comprehensive / long-range planning

• Transportation planning, particularly in a regional context

• County planning vs city planning issues

• Tribal planning

• Economic development in a Western Context

• Planning in recreation gateway towns or counties

• Healing polarization / conflict resolution / public engagement

• Technology (GIS, Generative A.I. , etc.)

• Food systems planning (including farmland preservation)

• Legislative Updates

Review Process
The conference committee will review all submissions on their merits and alignment with conference goals, applicability of content to Western target audiences, and content emphasis areas. 

Registration
Presenters will be eligible for CM credits, provided by the Western Central Chapter of the American Planning Association. All speakers must register to attend the conference; however, if a speaker does not want to take part in any other part of the conference, the registration fee will be waived.